Suncoast Searchlight wins national, Florida journalism awards

Suncoast Searchlight has earned honors from both a national business journalism contest and a statewide competition, recognizing the newsroom’s investigative and enterprise reporting across a range of topics — including several projects produced in collaboration with other local news organizations.

The newsroom received two awards from the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing, or SABEW, one of the nation’s leading organizations for business journalists.

Suncoast Searchlight’s “Power and Profit” series — an investigation into how developer-controlled special districts finance growth in Florida — won first place in the small newsroom division for explanatory reporting and earned an honorable mention in real-estate reporting.

Judges praised the series as “a valuable public service” and “exhaustively researched and clearly written,” highlighting its deep dive into the rapid expansion of special districts and the financial risks they can pose to homeowners.

“The series showed how a small, local online publication can and did pull off a complex, sweeping business news story that would challenge even the largest of national media organizations,” the judges wrote.

The reporting examined how developers use these districts to fund infrastructure projects, often shifting long-term costs onto residents who have little control over the governing boards. The project also included a searchable public database of special districts in Sarasota and Manatee counties.

In addition to the national recognition, Suncoast Searchlight received multiple honors in the Florida Society of News Editors’ annual contest, which recognizes top journalism across the state’s newsrooms.

Several of the FSNE honors were for collaborative projects produced with partner organizations, including the Bradenton Herald and the Florida Trident. Collaboration is a core part of Suncoast Searchlight’s mission, allowing the newsroom to expand the reach and impact of its accountability reporting across the region.

The newsroom earned awards in enterprise reporting, investigative reporting, community leadership and feature writing in Division C, which includes smaller news organizations.

Notably, Suncoast Searchlight swept the community leadership category in its division, earning first-, second- and third-place honors — all for projects focused on issues affecting local communities.

Among the FSNE wins:

• First place, community leadership: Carter Weinhofer, Kara Newhouse and Josh Salman, “Manatee County Schools Misconduct” (with the Bradenton Herald)
• Second place, community leadership: Josh Salman, Derek Gilliam and Michael Moore Jr., “Illegal Arcades” (with the Bradenton Herald)
• Third place, community leadership: Josh Salman, Derek Gilliam and Kara Newhouse, “Power and Profit”
• Second place, enterprise reporting: Alice Herman and Kara Newhouse, “Immigration Crackdown”
• Third place, enterprise reporting: Josh Salman, Derek Gilliam and Kara Newhouse, “Power and Profit”
• Second place, investigative reporting: Derek Gilliam and Michael Moore Jr., “Manatee County Sheriff’s Bar Fight” (with the Bradenton Herald)
• Third place, investigative reporting: Derek Gilliam and Michael Barfield, “Sarasota Stormwater Investigation” (with the Florida Trident)
• Second place, feature writing: Alice Herman and Kara Newhouse, “Jail-to-Deportation Pipeline”

The honors build on earlier recognition this year from the Florida Press Club, where Suncoast Searchlight also earned multiple awards for its reporting.

“I’m incredibly proud of our staff, especially to see this level of recognition for work produced in our first year of operation,” said Suncoast Searchlight Executive Editor-in-Chief Emily Le Coz. 

Suncoast Searchlight launched in February 2025 as a nonprofit digital newsroom covering Sarasota, Manatee and DeSoto counties, with a focus on investigative and explanatory reporting. In addition to producing watchdog journalism, the newsroom collaborates with other media organizations to expand the reach of its work and hosts community events and training sessions aimed at strengthening local journalism and public access to information.

“It’s particularly meaningful that several of these honors were for collaborative projects,” Le Coz said. “Collaboration is central to how we work, and it reflects a broader shift in journalism — that even as news organizations remain competitive, there’s a growing recognition that, with shrinking resources, we can better serve our communities by working together and maximizing what we’re able to produce.”